Monday, November 7, 2016

There’s something strange in the Bay Area neighborhood: The Oakland Raiders are the best team in their division, while the San Francisco 49ers keep getting worse. The memes even seem to be confused.

The Raiders haven’t been to the playoffs since 2002. Coincidentally, their quarterback at the time, Rich Gannon, won the MVP for the 2002 season. Now, Derek Carr, in his third season as the starter for Oakland, is named by many as the leading MVP candidate, while leading the Raiders to a 7-2 start.

The 49ers? They’re further and further away from the days of Jim Harbaugh, who took the team to 3 consecutive NFC championship games from 2011 and 2013. The 49ers were 8-8 in his final season. Since he left, fired or quit, it’s been awful. For the 49ers, for Colin Kaepernick, for anyone involved with the organization.

While not overall losers but in that category this week, the meme makers made fun of the Denver Broncos for their quarterback problems. John Elway doesn’t seem to be worried, fully confident that Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch, or one of them, will develop into something worthwhile. In the meantime, paying tuition for their quarterback school is costing the Broncos wins and who knows, maybe even the playoffs.